FINISHED!

I'm done. Yesterday morning I took my exam (written, 60 questions, took about 2 hours to complete). Then we had a free afternoon during which we were positively euphoric, and then that night during the evening Satsang we had our graduation ceremony and I received my certificate of completion for the course. Hurray!
After all the challenges and difficulties, I think I can look back on the last four weeks and say I don't regret doing this. There are definitely aspects of the program that I did not enjoy or benefit from, but the people were incredible, the place was really amazing, and some of the things I struggled with intitally became much easier to manage as I figured out the system and how to work around it (for example - my illicit cell phone use). Being in India was amazing, totally worth the hassles getting here, and I think I learned a lot about myself in the process of this course. We have all even agreed that we could see coming back to an ashram for a yoga vacation, which would be a very different experience from TTC for a variety of reasons (although primarily not having to listen to two hours of italian swami lecture every day) and might be quite pleasant now that we know and understand the system.
Anyway, this morning we woke up early and checked out of the ashram by about 7:45, had our last morning chai together in the courtyard and then all piled into Marguit's car (she lives in Kerala and her husband sent her driver down to collect her). He drove us to a hotel on a cliff near Kovalam called the Leela, which is absolutly breathtaking... beautiful views out over the ocean... we ate an "expensive" (700 rupees or about $14) all you can eat buffett brunch which was everything we had ever dreamed of while eating ashram food (I had basically three breakfasts) and then Marguit and Helene hit the road, Helen and her BF went off to have some private time, and Eva and I lounged by the pool for most of the day. The highlight? Showers in the changing room that had HOT WATER. Do you know how long it has been since I had a shower in HOT WATER?!?!
Now we are down in Kovalam for the evening - we plan to have beer, another first on the trip, and dinner, and crash and tomorrow morning I'll catch a cab to the airport in Mumbai and go to meet Mom.
All for now!